Britain's Hidden Hunger

[KanelbulleKing]

www.itv.com/hub/britains-secret-hunger-exposure/2a7613a0001

Just watching this on catch up and I'm sobbing. How has Britain sunk so low as a country that children are frightened of school holidays because they know they'll be hungry? Children thinking it's Christmas because their family has received a few bags of basic food items?

The existence of food banks in one of the richest countries in the world is a national disgrace. My MIL is knocking on 80 and spends her spare time peeling potatoes and carrots for the lunches her church provides for anyone who needs them. She should be putting her feet up and being served herself but she won't because she's too worried about her 'guests' going hungry.

Time for change?

It's sad things haven't changed. My parents always worked, but in low paid jobs, and my dad was made redundant just before i was born. don't remember being overly hungry (although I guess I don't know if everyone was told you'll ruin your tea if you have a snack now or whether people actually didn't snack etc as much). They accounted for every penny, and heartbreakingly, now I know they often went without so we could eat. We ate very basic food, basics toast or cornflakes; real butter was an absolute treat when going to see relatives, they'd always buy sweets etc and we would say we wanted bread and butter . We had a pack of crisps between us for lunch as they are luxuries really (along with a sandwhich), and tea would often be pasta. We never had fizzy drinks or takeaways, but they were seen as posh where I was anyway. My friends mum used to take mine shopping in the car to get cheaper food, and she said she would get home and cry- seeing her friend able to chuck whatever in the trolly while she carefully planned and still often had to put things back as she didn't have enough. We didn't have a car, had a telly but obviously not sky etc, our clothes were all second hand and the heating went on only when we were actually breathing cold air. But we were loved and they did the best. Had food banks existed it would have made their lives ten fold easier. It's sad they didn't exist then, but it's sad they have to exist now (if that makes sense).

I’m sorry but if you think porridge Made with water sugar and salt is delicious there is something wrong with you or your tastebuds

I tried it when dieting. I was starving by 9am. It tastes of wallpaper paste!

Pasta rice and tinned tomatoes are always on the list of requested items, as a PP linked. What is on your food banks list of requested items @Ragwort

Re branded items, as long as you are not donating fewer items on the basis they’re more expensive, what’s the problem? They generally taste better and have conveniences such as ring pulls on the cans, individually wrapped items etc

Porridge is traditionally made with water. I don't find it filling either but many people seem to.

Seeing cheap basics like canned tomatoes and pasta as poncy middle class foods seems to be a uniquely British trait.

That's not the case in other countries and they don't necessarily take time, skill or excessive fuel to cook either. Canned tomatoes on toast would make a good breakfast, you could make pasta sauce in a microwave or slow cooker etc etc, and many pasta dishes are examples of traditional 'peasant' cookery so cheap and substantial.

As is so often the case, Terry Pratchett sums the issue up perfectly:

Pratchett doesn't get enough recognition as a true philosopher of the people.

The boots theory was old by the time Pratchett used it. It’s certainly in the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (approximate title!) which was written long before Pratchett was born.

The thing is tinned tomatoes are widely eaten in the, shall we say, non middle classes* as you say, tomatoes on toast being a prime example. Also a staple of a cooked breakfast. And yes, working class people eat pasta. It’s not 1972 anymore

*the mumsnet definition of middle class is so bizarre you can’t even use it in a way that makes sense

The poster doesn’t mean middle class. They mean not in poverty.

Btw I’m not in poverty and I’d eat a frozen pizza before making vegetable stew everytime. It’s nothing to be shamed by

Mermaidoutofwater
I’ve met a lot of people on low incomes who think veggie soups, stews etc are gross. If you don’t grow up eating food like that you don’t acquire a taste for it.
When we analyse issues like this we forget we are doing so through our middle class lense.

I had to read this twice!
I firmly believe, if you rely on the generosity of strangers, you can't really dictate what you want to have to eat on your table!

And no, I don't think it's patronising if someone gives you a tin of tomatoes and a pack of pasta and tells you how to make a meal from it. But the issue is not about ability to cook more one of having the necessary extra ingredients like herbs & spices. But no food bank ever asks for these. They are cheap, easy to use and make a tasty difference to any tin of tomatoes.

They assume you're middle class because if you post a correctly spelled and punctuated sentence suggesting that porridge is a suitable breakfast it means that you're not one of those working class thickos who lives on coco pops and McDonald's.

I'm definitely not middle class BTW, I'm a miners daughter who lived through the strike and have also suffered poverty due to redundancy and business failure as an adult.

During the strike we received food parcels from German miners welfare organisations and the EEC butter mountain. We had to have packed lunches made from rye bread and canned pate because we had to make do with what we'd been given.

I suspect that’s because you don’t understand how food banks work @Ylvamoon.

The privilege in your post is quite astounding.

“They assume you're middle class because if you post a correctly spelled and punctuated sentence suggesting that porridge is a suitable breakfast it means that you're not one of those working class thickos who lives on coco pops and McDonald's.”

Exactly this. It’s a disgrace.

The porridge / gruel question is an interesting one and encapsulates a lot of the well-documented and very strong social and cultural forces at work when people make seemingly poor decisions about food and money.

For some people (me included) porridge is a pretty healthy. breakfast. My grand parents all ate it (often with butter and salt/pepper) as did my mum, growing up. But by the 1970s when I grew up, it was deeply unfashionable to eat it - cereal all the way, the more novelty the better. Then it comes full circle, with me - middle class parent - happily serving porridge to my children (though they prefer honey or molasses on top) and rejecting sugary novelty cereals. My mum was taken aback initially- for her, she associates eating porridge with poverty, making-do, not being able to afford any alternative. For lots of people, especially if they grew up poor and ashamed, doing anything that smacks of that time - whether it’s eating porridge or vegetable soup rather than frozen pizzas and processed cereals, or making do with second hand clothes rather than buying new / labels, or breastfeeding rather than using formula - tells them that they have failed. That they are failures. It’s not rational, especially to anyone who is more confident in their choices and in themselves, and who has less baggage. But that’s people: generally, they aren’t rational or good at making decisions - even the ones who think they are.

There is some truth in what you say wally, and this is well documented particularly amongst African Americans who in a stereotypical diet often reject the traditional foods eaten during slavery, for obvious reasons.

However don’t underestimate how many people just don’t like porridge. It’s also not that cheap.

It’s also not that cheap.

I could buy some value bread or cornflakes for a similar amount.

In Scotland they cook porridge on water and put salt on it. They then pour milk on top (like you would cereal. There’s literally tons of ways to make and eat porridge!! Whenever I eat porridge I am full until lunch!! No snackingz

You get half the amount of cornflakes though, and they don't fill you up nearly as much, I couldn't justify buying cereal when we were skint.

I'm always angered by the terminally smug on these threads. They're always on them, like moths to a flame, spouting their useless but harmful 'wisdoms' with no sense of empathy or compassion for anybody who isn't them and theirs. Get rid of pets/kids... all disposable to some who sit replete and think that they'll never be in that situation. Shameful and sickening.

CynthiaRothrock, that is such a sad and terrifying set of circumstances. As you say, it could happen to anybody at any time.

I believe that the only way forward is to tackle the feckless parents (fathers!) who do not PAY for their children to eat and live. How bloody dare they think that they can father children and not pay for their maintenance? It may be that it's not palatable for a political party to address this and clamp down on these twats so hard that they squeak but... the first one to realistically and consistently do it would run the country and change our children's lives for the better.

Personally, I'd castrate men who continue to father children without financial consequence. I may or may not use anaesthetic.

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe I know what I can afford as I am NOT well off. I have to budget EVERY SINGLE PENNY! I cannot afford pets end of!! I actually don’t have the luxury of living in the U.K. where you have free school meals!! I send my dc into school with a packed lunch otherwise they starve. So yes if you are struggling to feed your family and you have a dog, you better believe I am suggesting that you get rid!

Good for you Manica. As lying said, you’ve joined the terminally smug. Enjoy your porridge

Yeah well you know what holey maybe you’re lucky and you haven’t had such a shit life you’re desperate for someone/ something to love you, or to show you some affection. Maybe you’re lucky enough not to have learning difficulties. Maybe you’re lucky enough that you grew up in an environment where people taught you that it was wrong to have pets because they can cost huge amounts of money. Lucky you

Holeymoley, pets and children are not disposable to many people. Circumstances change. You do you but kindly don't 'FFS' at people who choose not to 'get rid'.

I'd skip Christmas before I'd get rid of a family pet but, we're all different and you'd better believe that I won't be judging other people for what they do.

Your posts on this thread are of the thigh-rubbing variety and it just goes to show that that particular past-time (sitting in judgement) is popular at every household income.

Missed your post WallyWallyWally and it's really thought-provoking (for those of us who bother).

People are not automatons, not machines and not all the same, we have different circumstances, upbringings and experiences that cloud and colour everything we do.

There used to be such a celebration of diversity in the UK and a real sense of community and pulling together, that everybody would want to give a bit to help a lot, but that seems to be dying now with the relatively few who do, up against pursed lips of those who'd rather sit in their high (or low) or low positions and judge.

I never once said to get rid of children